Media Contact:
Jordan Baker
jbaker@frac.org
980-290-7282
Statement attributable to Crystal FitzSimons, president, Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)
WASHINGTON, June 23, 2026 — Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-AR) today released a Farm Bill discussion draft that ignores the needs of tens of millions of people, including families with children, older adults, people with disabilities, and veterans, who are finding it increasingly difficult to put food on the table. FRAC is deeply concerned that the draft does not mitigate any of the unprecedented $187 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enacted under the budget reconciliation law, H.R. 1. The draft specifically fails to address the harmful cost shifts to states, which Senate Agriculture Committee Democrats stated was essential to begin negotiations on a bipartisan Farm Bill.
The SNAP cuts, including expanded time limits, are already causing widespread harm. Approximately 4.7 million people have lost access to SNAP since H.R. 1 went into effect on July 4, 2025. For many households, these cuts mean loss of automatic access to free school meals, empty cupboards, missed meals, and impossible choices between food, rent, and medicine. By shifting program costs to states, expanding time limits, and putting a cap on future benefit adjustments, H.R. 1 has undermined SNAP, the stability of families, communities, and local economies, and weakened state budgets.
The SNAP benefit cost shift to states and increase in states’ administrative costs will force states to make impossible choices: reduce education funding, delay infrastructure investments, cut public health programs, constrain Medicaid spending, raise taxes, or reduce access to SNAP itself. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that some states will leave the program entirely.
Chairman Boozman can address these harms by advancing a Farm Bill that recognizes that agricultural abundance and food security are inseparable. Instead, his draft does not restore lost benefits, reverse harmful policy changes, or strengthen the federal commitment to helping families afford food despite the mounting pressures on American families, state and local governments, and local economies.
This is not the future we should accept. Americans across the country overwhelmingly support SNAP, recognizing its role in fighting hunger and poverty and improving health.
We urge Chairman Boozman to work with his committee members to deliver a Farm Bill that invests in SNAP and addresses the cost shifts to states and the other SNAP cuts. Our lawmakers must prioritize building a nation free from hunger, where every individual and every family has access to the food they need to thrive. Hungry people can’t wait.
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The Food Research & Action Center improves the nutrition, health, and well-being of people struggling against poverty-related hunger in the United States through advocacy, partnerships, and by advancing bold and equitable policy solutions. To learn more, visit FRAC.org and follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky.